ORIGINAL ARTICLE Anatomicohistological Characteristics of the Tubular Genital Organs of the Female Red Brocket Deer (Mazama americana) in the Peruvian Amazon P. Mayor 1,2 *, C. Lo ´ pez-Plana 1 and M. Lo ´ pez-Be ´ jar 1 Addresses of authors: 1 Department of Animal Health and Anatomy, Faculty of Veterinary, Universitat Auto ` noma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, E-08193, Barcelona, Spain; 2 Peruvian Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, Nanay, 332, Iquitos, Peru ´ *Correspondence: Tel.: +34 3 581 2482; fax: +34 3 581 2006; e-mail: mayorpedro@hotmail.com With 5 figures and 4 tables Received September 2011; accepted for publication March 2012 doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0264.2012.01154.x Summary This study examined the anatomical and histological characteristics of tubular genital organs of 51 adult female red brocket deer in the wild in different reproductive stages, collected by rural hunters in the north-eastern Peruvian Amazon. The infundibulum was characterized by a large diameter and the presence of a highly folded and ciliated epithelium, and the isthmus has a growing secretor epithelium and a thicker muscular layer. Whereas ciliated cells are more frequent in the infundibulum, epithelial secretory cells showing abun- dant apical secretory blebs are more frequent in the isthmus. In non-pregnant females in luteal phase, the endometrium transforms from a proliferative to a secretory type, showing a significant proliferation of endometrial uterine glands. The red brocket deer has four large circular folds in the cervix. The epi- thelium of the cervix is composed primarily of secretory cells. In pregnant females, the lumen of the endocervical canal is occupied by abundant mucous secretion. All pregnant females had one embryo or fetus, with a fetal sex ratio of 54.0% females to 46.0% males. This species has a cotyledonary, syndesmo- chorial and partially deciduate placenta, with 6–7 dome-shaped caruncles per female. The red brocket deer does not present a true cornification of the vagi- nal epithelial cells, and no vaginal epithelial pattern was determined according the reproductive state of the female. Introduction In the Amazon region, wildlife subsistence hunting has been a traditional source of food, animal skins and other essential items for local people (FitzGibbon, 1998). Hunt- ing, however, may lead to a situation in which mamma- lian species in forested habitats become locally or even widely extinct (Redford, 1993). The red brocket deer (Mazama americana) is one of the most frequently hunted species in the Amazon region (Puertas and Bodmer, 2004). It is a medium-sized artiodactyl, weighting from 20 to 30 kg (Emmons, 1997). This species has a wide dis- tribution ranging from southern Mexico to Amazonia and the Chaco and through eastern Paraguay to northern Argentina (Redford and Eisenberg, 1992). In the Amazon region, the female red brocket deer is considered to be aseasonally polyoestrous, apparently breeding year-round (Hurtado-Gonzales and Bodmer, 2006), but exhibits clear peaks of conceptions and births (Branan and Marchinton, 1987; Bisbal, 1994). This species has a mean gestation length of 210 days (Muller and Duarte, 1992), a mean ovulation rate of 1.14 ovulations per female (Mayor et al., 2011a) and litter size is usually one, but occasionally twins may occur (Redford and Eisenberg, 1992; Hurtado- Gonzales and Bodmer, 2006). Estimated yearly reproduc- tive production in the wild was 0.76–0.82 young per adult female (Mayor et al., 2011a). The reproductive biology could be considered as a spe- cies’ ability to withstand varying levels of harvesting and can predict how a particular prey species will respond to © 2012 Blackwell Verlag GmbH Anat. Histol. Embryol. 1 Anatomia, Histologia, Embryologia